In the Blue Hour

The loss of a loved one is hard and it feels like they never really leave. That feeling lives where we can barely see it, in the blue hour.

When Elise Brooks has a dream about a car accident, she doesn’t think much of it, after all it is just a dream. Then a few weeks later, her husband is killed just like her dream. She blames herself feeling that she missed the signs and could have somehow prevented his death. Now she feels his spirit following her in the form of a raven. There are forces at work beyond her understanding and she turns to both the Native American wisdom she grew up with and psychics, which she has always been skeptical about. Clues lead her to take a journey after finding a mysterious address found in her late husband’s jacket. She puts her trust in a new friend, Tom, or at least she hopes he is a friend, and follows the clues. Tom doesn’t believe in the supernatural but is happy to help Elise on her journey. Together they will both find more than they could have ever imagined.

Let me start by saying that overall I really did enjoy the story. The way it was written, not so much. The story started with mostly narrative, very little dialogue to move the story forward, and stayed that way throughout much of the rest of the novel. When a reader opens a book to see if it might be worth their time and find page after page of narrative, it can be a turn off. I know it is for me. I think the story would have flowed much smoother if Hall had found a way to portray more of it through dialogue in some way. This type of story does rely heavily on narrative, I get that, but when it causes me to want to skip over parts of the story just to get to something I deem more important. However, had I done that with much of the narrative, I’m sure I missed a few key points that could have caused the ending to be a little less enjoyable, if not a little confusing. The conclusion made me think that perhaps I was missing something from the beginning but it was all there just a little hard to follow at times. It was still an enjoyable read, but not one I will pick up again.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within are my own.